This is an oldie but a goody that I just found. It's sold but every time I see this image it tugs at my heart. The look on the face of this homeless man stands in my mind as he offered a friendly gesture to each person that whisked by him on a garishly lit street in New Orleans. I imagine that he has a very sweet heart.  I prefer to paint a simple composition (maybe that's what I like about doing portraits) but I really felt that this character needed to be placed in his actual environment. So I tried to pull that off, putting a lot of the background in but in a subued manner, without a lot of detail. I hope it worked.